sara | February 21, 2010
What is your favourite chicken breed?
Chickens and hens are kept for many reasons:
They lay eggs.
Provide meat.
As pets.
For company.
Their plummage.
Their disposition and character.
My favourite breed is the leghorn as I kept a white leghorn for 5 years. She was called Hatty and she had a brilliant personality. She ruled the roost over the guinea fowl, cats [...]
sara | February 12, 2010
I was asked today which chicken breeds are kept for meat.
My father-in-law suggested Cobs where the fastest growing chickens for their meat.
The more traditional breeds he suggested included:
Light Sussex
Rhode Island Red
Buff Orpingtons
Chickens are bred for different purposes. Some are breed solely for their meat, others their egg production and some for dual purpose.
Meat Birds
Cornish
Orpington
Cochin
Brahma
Dual Purpose [...]
sara | January 14, 2010
Keeping a few hens in the back yard is one of the fastest growing hobbies in the UK and it’s no surprise because it is incredibly straightforward. If you keep hens without a cockerel, they make very little noise and shouldn’t be any trouble with the neighbours. A supply of fresh eggs is always welcome [...]
sara | December 30, 2009
I have been asked if you can you move unhatched hen eggs.
“Can you move unhatched chook eggs to another location like another nesting spot or coup. Coral”
Hi Coral,
Thanks for your question. I don’t have experience of moving unhatched hen eggs myself but I have tried to move guinea fowl eggs when the guinea fowl hen [...]
sara | December 29, 2009
My friend Trisha from Birdtablenews has sent me a message on my farmingfriends twitter page to say, “We have 4 hens and can’t put them out because of a fox. We are in middle of fencing a small field that has a hen hut, do you think that putting up a large fence will [...]
sara | December 28, 2009
My hens have recently started to eat the duck eggs that are laid in the early morning before 8am. My hens and ducks are kept in the smae hut but I don’t want the hens to eat the duck eggs so I have been looking at tips to stop egg eating.
Gather eggs more frequently or [...]
sara | September 7, 2009
My friend Trisha from Bird Table News emailed to say that this Summer a fox has taken a number of their hens.
Just wanted to say that this summer we had foxes get some chickens. The chickens that the fox killed always wandered off on their own and were never near the cockerel. We [...]
sara | September 1, 2009
Determining an illness or disease by a hens droppings can be difficult, but the droppings can be a tell tale sign that a hen is not well.
I received an email from one of my readers asking about a hen having yellow discharge and diarrhea.
I have a hen with a yellow discharge and diorrhea. She is [...]
sara | August 25, 2009
I received this question about runny egg whites.
I keep a few free range hens,recently the whites of the eggs have become runny. Nothing has changed in any way, feed or conditions. Any idea what I can do? They just splash across the pan now when fried. Thanks. James
This was my response:
Hi James, Thank you for [...]
sara | June 22, 2009
A broody hen is a hen that wants to sit on a nest of eggs so that they hatch out.
* If you do not want to let a hen sit on a nest, then it is a good idea to remove the hen from the nest as soon as possible (night time is a good [...]
